Motivations: A short introduction (2 minutes)

The subject of motivations of citizen scientist is an enormous one and the subject of many research papers. We will only visit it briefly here, but you can find out more in the "Further Reading" section at the end.

Our purposes now are to use this topic to help you understand the point of view of the volunteer, their needs, and the stories they might want to tell. 

We'll first look at a well-known study about why people chose to help with astronomical research. We'll then look at a story far more personal to a citizen scientist. 

Neither of the above will fully answer "Why do people do citizen science?", because there is never a single answer. People will choose to report on light pollution, draw cells or bacteria, photograph bumblebees, transcribe historical records or download a program to analyse cancer cell markers for vastly different reasons. Generally, everyone will have several motivations operating at once.

Motivations can be intrinsic (coming from within), e.g. someone's own personal interest, such as their fascination with some science topic, or extrinsic (coming from their circumstances), such as their wish to solve a problem to do with health or the environment which directly affects them or their community. 

Motivations often change over time. As we will see later, someone might sign up to a project due to their own personal interest. But in order to repeatedly come back and contribute, they will need more, such as feedback demonstrating that they are being useful.